Kiosks

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT KIOSKS - PAGE 4

MOVING. Fotomat Corp., the Japanese-owned film processor known for its tiny parking-lot kiosks, said it plans to move its headquarters from St. Petersburg back to Hartford, Conn. The move is the latest development in the decline of the company, whose practice of processing film overnight was made nearly obsolete by the arrival of one-hour processing labs. At one time, Fotomat had nearly 3,800 yellow and red parking-lot kiosks and storefronts. That number has dwindled to 800 outlets.

Coming to a convenience store near you: auto insurance bill-pay and sign-up. 7-Eleven Inc. announced Tuesday an alliance with subsidiaries of a Dallas-based insurance holding company to offer auto policy sign-up and bill-pay services through kiosks at 7-Eleven stores.

TOKYO -- People crowded around lottery kiosks all over Tokyo on Tuesday, braving a cold wind to buy a shot at a dream. Tickets for the annual New Year's lottery went on sale nationwide, with a top prize of $1.8 million. Tickets sell through Dec. 22. The drawing is on Dec. 31.

Hickory Farms, built around seasonal sales of beef sticks and cheese trays, will close its remaining 18 shopping mall stores to focus on catalog and Internet sales. The specialty food store still will operate temporary stores and kiosks in malls during the holidays. Hickory Farms once included 550 stores mainly in shopping malls in the United States and Canada.

The Canadian bank that runs a U.S. Internet bank with kiosks in Winn-Dixie supermarkets said it laid off employees at its Florida headquarters and call center in Maitland on Thursday, but would not disclose the number. Before the cuts, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which operates in Florida as Marketplace Bank, had about 600 people in Florida, bank spokeswoman Susan McDougall said. The company is in the process of cutting about 2,000 employees worldwide, or about 5 percent of its work force, "due to changing and tough economic conditions," McDougall said from Toronto, where the bank is based.

TAVARES - Imagine the ease of borrowing books via mail, or having vast research materials at your fingertips without setting foot in your local library.A books-by-mail program and an automated machine that delivers electronic library information 24 hours a day could be up and running in Lake County early next year if county leaders approve the projects this month.Both ideas are meant to help Lake's library system expand its offerings in a geographically large county with many outlying, rural areas, said Diane Kamp, county library system spokeswoman.

As part of its ongoing move into mainstream retail, Tupperware Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a deal to sell its kitchenware through The Kroger Co. -- the nation's largest grocery chain. Kissimmee-based Tupperware plans to begin selling its products today at kiosks in 25 Kroger-owned stores in Ohio, Kentucky and Arizona, company officials said. If the initial test marketing is successful, Cincinnati-based Kroger plans to sell Tupperware throughout its 2,400-store organization, which includes 24 different chains in 32 states.

Heathrow-based Cygnus Entertainment has activated a new service that allows people to order Universal Orlando tickets online and print them out at ticket kiosks at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The automated "will-call" ticketing service requires users to swipe their credit card at one of six on-site kiosks to verify their identity. MARKETING DEAL Next time you wash up after feeding the dolphins at SeaWorld, you'll see an ad for Dial soap. SeaWorld's parent company has signed a two-year marketing deal with Dial Corp.